Civil War Heroes

The Civil War was fought over the idea of slavery. Northern states (Union Army) were for the freedom of the blacks, and the southern states (Confederate Army) were for slavery.For four years between 1861 and 1865 the United States engaged in a civil war. Divisions between the free North and the slaveholding South erupted into a full-scale conflict after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union, collectively turning their back on the idea of a single American nation. Lincoln, who had been in office for only six weeks, declared these acts of secession illegal, and asked Congress for 500,000 soldiers to crush what threatened to be an aggressive rebellion. In April 1861, the first shots were fired. and what followed became a national tragedy of unimaginable proportions . More than 600,000 soldiers were killed and millions more wounded; large sections of the South were ravaged by violent battles; and the Union nearly collapsed under determined Confederate forces. In the end the Union Army pulled through and won the battle.Website Editers: Jon Chappell, and JT Furniss.